Microsoft signs up to the White House patent plan

Microsoft has said that it is backing the White House in its efforts to revamp a patent system that has become a haven for Patent Trolls. President Barak Obama has announced new executive actions, including an initiative to crowdsource prior art and expand the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Patent Examiner Technical Training Programme.

This will aims to “help patent examiners keep up with fast-changing technological fields by making it easier for technologists, engineers, and other experts to provide relevant technical training and guidance to patent examiners”.

Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel and corporate vice president of legal and corporate affairs at Microsoft said his company applauds and supports these efforts.

“All stakeholders, including those of us in the private sector, have a key role to play in keeping this system healthy,” he wrote in his bog.

Microsoft is providing visibility into its own patent portfolio through its Patent Tracker Tool, a searchable online database that was launched last year. The tool enables users to examine more than 37,000 patents issued to the company worldwide.

“That same commitment to transparency and quality has driven our efforts to make prior art information more easily accessible to the USPTO.”